Choice for Premier Is Loyalist With Ties to Military / Yeltsin's move seen as warning to possible rivals

Maura Reynolds, Richard C. Paddock, Los Angeles Times

Published
4:00 am PDT, Thursday, May 13, 1999

1999-05-13 04:00:00 PDT Moscow -- Russians know Sergei Stepashin as a military man who has more than once called out troops against his countrymen.

In the popular mind, Stepashin is blamed for two of Russia's most shameful military disasters: the war against separatist Chechnya that killed 80,000 people, and a bungled raid against Chechen hostage-takers in 1995 that left more than 100 dead.

He is also known to be fiercely loyal to President Boris Yeltsin, whose decision yesterday to name him prime minister was seen as a warning to potential rivals.

"It's crystal clear that what Yeltsin is doing is installing loyalists in positions of power -- loyalists with command of military forces," said Alan Rousso, director of the Moscow Carnegie Center. "Right now the country is heading toward a constitutional crisis, and by putting in someone like Stepashin, he's suggesting that it could be decided by force."

Stepashin has a degree of grace and public ease that belies his warmongering reputation. He is quick with a smile and has a pinkish, almost delicate complexion and a chubby face. The combination has earned him the sobriquet "the red-cheeked hawk."

Little is known of Stepashin's political or economic philosophies. But he has served at one time or another in nearly all of Russia's so- called "power ministries" -- the Security Council, the Interior Ministry and the intelligence services -- which gives him unrivaled standing with the military and law enforcement.

For most of his career he served with the Interior Ministry troops, a force of 200,000 responsible for domestic law and order. In American terms, the Interior Ministry more or less combines the functions of the FBI, local police and the National Guard.

Stepashin's long military career makes liberals nervous. But he's not embraced by hard-liners, either. They remember that he sided with Yeltsin in 1993, when the president called out tanks and troops to settle his differences with opposition lawmakers.

In August 1991, when Communists instigated a coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, Stepashin quit the Communist Party and rallied to Yeltsin's side, helping organize the pro-democracy defenses. When it was over, he began an investigation into the KGB, earning points with anti-Communists. Yeltsin rewarded him by appointing him deputy security minister.

Stepashin took Yeltsin's side again two years later, supporting his decision to call in tanks to dislodge opposition lawmakers who had barricaded themselves inside the parliament building. He was rewarded by being appointed to the reconstituted KGB, becoming the agency's director in March 1994.

Later that year, Stepashin played a central role in deciding to send troops to put down separatists in Chechnya. He supported the intervention, saying it would be a simple operation that would be over in a matter of weeks. Instead, it lasted for 21 months, killed 80,000 people, and destroyed the military's morale.

Perhaps Stepashin's most public humiliation came in June 1995 when a group of Chechen fighters staged a hostage-taking raid into southern Russia, seizing 1,000 hostages at a hospital in the town of Budyonnovsk.

Dozens died in the fighting. After a four-day standoff, Stepashin ordered troops to storm the hospital. In the confusion that followed, dozens more died and the raiders escaped back into Chechnya with about 100 hostages, whom they later freed. In the end, between 100 and 150 people were dead. Stepashin took the blame, and resigned in disgrace.

Stepashin's comeback didn't take long. In July 1997, when a former justice minister was filmed cavorting with prostitutes in a mafia- linked bathhouse, Yeltsin named Stepashin to the job and ordered him to clean shop. Less than a year later, he was named interior minister, making him the country's top policeman.